ebooks on reserve

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  • Can Netlibrary books be put on reserve if password protected?
  • Yes, I believe you can *link* to your Netlibrary titles from your e-reserves system. So I've been told, though we haven't done it yet at my school and I haven't looked at our license agreement with Netlibrary to confirm that this is true. I know that OCLC allows, and even encourages, you to link to Netlibrary titles from your OPAC, and they also allow you to set up "deep links" via WorldCat so that your patrons can link directly to your Netlibrary titles from a page of search engine results. So I can't imagine why they'd object to you linking from reserves as well.

    Remember, if you can link you're not creating your own unauthorized digital copy -- you're just pointing to where it already exists on the Netlibrary server; therefore, copyright isn't really an issue. The only issue involved with linking in this case is that your license agreement probably restricts access to your Netlibrary titles to a defined set of authenticated users -- which usually means that patrons will either have to be on-site or they will have to enter their library barcode/ID number before they can access the linked Netlibrary title. Check your license agreement if you have access to a copy.

    I'll take a look at our agreement when I'm back at work and let you know if I find anything that contradicts the above.
  • I have linked to a net library book on ereserve. The link was through our proxy server so our users had to authenticate to access the book. It's just a link--there was no copyright issue.
  • I'll also add that putting up materials (not merely links) from Netlibrary may or may not be copyright infringement (depending on the specific situation), but before you can even evaluate that you'll need to look at the contract your organization has with Netlibrary. The contract will trump copyright interests.
  • We routinely place Netlibrary items on reserve. As noted by folks above, there is an authentication process built in and (in addition) the Netlibrary model only allows one user at a time to "check out" the item. It really is pretty much like placing a physical book on reserve so (as also noted above) barring any licensing issues at your specific site, which seems unlikely, this should be very straightforward.

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